Coach Leochner - Varsity
Coach Stuewe - Varsity Assistant
Coach Stuewe grew up in Topeka, Kansas where he graduated from Seaman High School. He received his bachelor’s degree from KU in physical education. He also has earned two master’s degrees - physical education from Emporia State University and school leadership from Baker University. Coach Stuewe began his teaching career at the Shawnee County COOP as the Adaptive Physical Education teacher for USD 501. The following year, he went to Piper Elementary to teach PE for four years. During his time at Piper, he coached the freshman team for two years and JV team for the final two years for the boys’ basketball program. In 2000, he transitioned to Olathe to become the PE teacher at Briarwood Elementary where he currently teaches. During that time, he coached C-team volleyball at Olathe East for 17 years and boys’ basketball for 21 years – 10 years as sophomore coach, 6 years as JV coach and 5 years as varsity assistant. Coach Stuewe helped lead the Olathe East basketball program to nine state tournament appearances with a third place and two fourth place finishes while winning the Sunflower League title twice.
Coach Stuewe lives in Olathe with his wife, Robyn, of 26 years. They have two children – Luke, 22, is a senior at KU and Lexi, 18, is a freshman at University of Arkansas.
Coach Leochner grew up in Hutchinson Kansas and graduated from Buhler High School before attending Hutchinson Community College. Upon graduation from HCC, Coach Leochner attended the University of Kansas where he earned both his bachelors and masters degrees in middle/secondary education and curriculum and instruction. Coach Leochner began his coaching and teaching career at Southwest Junior High School in Lawrence Kansas where he led the 9th grade girls and 8th grade boys teams for two years. He then made the transition to Free State High School in 2003 as the junior varsity girls coach for 3 seasons. Coach Leochner helped turn a struggling program into a perennial Sunflower League contender and in his final year with the girls program they made their first of many trips to the state tournament under head coach Bryan Duncan. Coach Leochner then joined the boys program at Free State as the assistant head coach for the 2006-07 season. That year’s team finished 3rd at the Kansas class 6A state tournament. After a 5 year stint as the assistant head coach at Free State High School Coach Leochner took his first head coaching position at Baldwin High School in 2011. Coach Leochner took over a program that had seen recent struggles and led them to 3 consecutive winning seasons and a combined record of 45-19. In his final year Baldwin compiled an 18-4 record, winning the Frontier League. After a 3 year break to spend more time with his family, Coach Leochner became the head coach at Southwest in 2017. In his 3rd season the team won their first sub-state championship in school history. The team then lost to #1 seeded Andover High School by 1 point in a Covid19 shortened state tournament.
Coach Leochner is married to Therese who is an applied behavior analyst, and they have a 9 year old daughter, Ava and a 4 year old son, Kellen.
Coach Palmgren - Junior Varsity
Coach Palmgren was born and raised in Olathe. After graduating from Olathe South High School, he attended Pittsburg State University where he studied Spanish Education. Coach Palmgren taught at Blue Valley West for the five years until moving to Southwest in 2019. Coach Palmgren started coaching under Coach Rabbitt and this will be his 7th year coaching at Southwest. He has coached the Freshman teams, Sophomore, and this will be his 5th year at the JV level. For this upcoming year, Coach Palmgren is excited to coach the Junior Varsity team and looks forward to assisting the Varsity team. Along with being the JV coach, he is one of the coaches for our Wolf Pup youth program.
Coach Palmgren lives in Spring Hill with his wife, Courtney and their dog, Roni.
Coach Pearson - Sophomore
Coach Pearson grew up in Wichita, Kansas where he graduated from Bishop Carroll Catholic High School. He received his bachelor's degree from Wichita State University in Sports Management. His first coaching position was at St. Jude Catholic School in Wichita where he discovered his passion for developing young athletes. While coaching at St. Jude for three years, Coach Pearson began coaching club basketball for several teams including Kansas MTXE (7 years), Team Perry Ellis (2 years), and Wichita Padres this past summer. The last two years he has been an Assistant Boys Basketball Coach at Kapaun Mount Carmel Catholic High School in Wichita. During his time there, he lead the sophomore and freshmen teams, and assisted with varsity. Also while at Kapaun, he helped lead the team to a final four appearance at the 2020 state tournament before it was canceled due to Covid-19. Coach Pearson is in his first year at Southwest working in the SPED department as well as coaching basketball. He is excited to help the coaching staff and build relationships with the players!
Coach Horstick - Freshmen A
Coach Horstick graduated from Central Heights High School and then from MidAmerica Nazarene University where he earned his degree in Athletic Training and Sports Management. His first coaching position was as the assistant girls basketball coach at Kansas City Christian School. He then went on to be the Head Coach for the same program. While at Kansas City Christian he also taught High School Personal Finance and Boys Health/PE. He will also starting his 4th season as an assistant coach for the baseball team at KCC this spring. He is currently the Kids Activities Assistant Manager at Lifetime Fitness in Overland Park, KS.
He lives in Olathe, KS with his wife, Jessica Horstick and their dogs, Hosmer and Nala.
Coach Toliver - Freshmen B
Coach Deron Toliver was born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri. He attended Lincoln College Preparatory Academy High School, where he was a member of the varsity basketball team since the end of his sophomore year. He was the captain his senior year, averaging 16 points per game and helping his team to win a district championship. After graduating from high school in 2012, Coach Toliver went on to study kinesiology at Avila University. He was a member of the basketball team there, but unfortunately dealt with many injuries that kept him sidelined for most of his career. He graduated from Avila in 2016 and started coaching basketball, using these experiences as motivators for the up and coming student athletes. Deron coaches youth basketball with a program called Kansas City Supreme, alongside former college teammates Keith Taylor, Josh Benford, Sedrick Johnson, and Jordan Davis. Coach Toliver is currently the job coach for the special education department of Blue Valley Southwest, assisting students in building job skills for life after high school.
Deron resides in Overland Park, KS and is blessed to have a son, Adyn Toliver, who is 1 year old.
